It was the harshest penalty for a technical infraction since, well, last year when it hammered Hendrick Motorsports for what it said were illegal C-posts on Jimmie Johnson’s car for the Daytona 500.

The result of those sanctions was an embarrassing defeat on final appeal, as NASCAR’s chief appellate officer John Middlebrook overturned the penalties and virtually wiped the slate clean except for a $100,000 fine.

In other words, Johnson’s team violated a rule but either the rule was not well defined and/or the parts and pieces had been through tech so many times that they were basically approved.

Like Hendrick, Penske has vowed to appeal the penalties, probably hoping for a similar outcome.

But this is not a similar case. Either Penske Racing brass or NASCAR officials are living in la la land on this one.

Maybe NASCAR didn’t learn anything from losing its last appeal and is going down an embarrassing road that will threaten its credibility and the legitimacy of future penalties.

Or Penske officials know they are wrong and are putting on a charade for its sponsors. If they appeal and lose, it’s better than admitting wrongdoing and creates a bit of doubt that maybe, just maybe, there was a misinterpretation of the rules.

But things don’t look good for the Penske on this one. This wasn’t just one piece that didn’t conform to the rules. This doesn’t appear to be an incident where one piece was just out of whack.

The rules cited in the penalty seem pretty clear-cut.

One of the rules cited in NASCAR’s news release Wednesday read: “All front end and rear end suspension mounts and mounting hardware must not allow movement or realignment of any suspension component beyond normal rotation or suspension travel.”

That is a new rule for 2013. Along with this: “All front end and rear end suspension mounts with mounting hardware assembled must have single round mounting holes that are the correct size for the fastener being used.”

Both those rules were added to keep teams from using suspension systems that skew the rear of the car to help it turn better. Last year, teams had suspension pieces that would unhook in one place and lock in at another in the turns.

That is where all the teams were spending a lot of money and NASCAR developed new rules to prevent that type of package.

Those new rules weren’t the only ones that Penske allegedly broke. They also allegedly broke rules that didn’t change, which require the pieces to be made of solid magnetic steel and for any new systems to be approved by NASCAR.

Maybe there is some reasonable explanation for all of this. Maybe the gray area is in the terms “mounts and mounting hardware” and what that defines.

Maybe Penske just figured that other teams worked in that area last year and NASCAR didn’t do anything but change some wording in the rulebook instead of handing down penalties and suspensions.

But it’s been pretty clear that rear suspensions were a focus of NASCAR going into 2013. NASCAR changed the rules in that area of the car to try to stop the shenanigans. So Penske went out and apparently developed such a package, at least believing that what it did was not a violation of the letter of the law.

In other words, the Penske teams thumbed their noses at NASCAR and dared it to react.

NASCAR reacted. Big time.

Though Hendrick won its appeal last year, this case looks different. It wasn’t just one piece that NASCAR deemed illegal. It was a series of pieces and mechanisms. It was on all of the Penske cars. It smells bad. Real bad.

While the Hendrick appeal might give Penske executives hope, it would be surprising if the penalties are significantly decreased on appeal.

NASCAR wouldn’t go out on a limb and dare Penske to appeal in such an instance after last year, would it?

If NASCAR loses this appeal, it will be questioned every time it takes a part or a piece during inspection. NASCAR’s inconsistency in some of its rulings (we’ve seen that the last few months, haven’t we?), combined with its unwillingness to adjust its penalty protocol based on past appeals, would damage NASCAR’s credibility even more.

So fans will learn through the appeals process that one side — either Penske or NASCAR — was arrogant and thought it could buck the system.

I’ll guess that it will be Penske. Keselowski and Logano should be ready to have different crew chiefs calling the shots for the next seven weeks.